Behind every great piece of artwork, no matter the form, there is deep emotion. An artist (painter, musician, actor, etc.) simply cannot perform or create something beautiful if there is no fiery passion behind it. That is why the greatest of the greats in each respective art division, such as Midori, Andy Warhol and Martha Graham attract such large audiences. When people can relate to a piece, whether they can explain why or not, I think it is largely due to the fact that they feel a connection emotionally to it somehow; if the work of art is passionate, whether it stems from the artist’s feelings of remorse, sadness, elation or any other strong emotion, it will speak to many.
The reason I bring this up is because of an article I came across in the New York Times about Denis O’Hare’s role in the TV show “True Blood.” O’Hare, who is a tony-award winning actor, will now be playing an ex-mental patient in the new show “Elling.” From what I read about his emotionally charged, intense performance on HBO’s show, I think that he will be phenomenal in this type of extremely high strung character (who was described as a “frightened obsessive, afraid of answering the telephone or leaving his apartment, and who frequently loses his temper”).
Connecting to what I said in the first paragraph, O’Hare’s celebrated acting was especially noted in True Blood during a scene during which O’Hare rushes into a meeting for equal rights and gives a manic monologue saying that vampires are superior to humans. The point here is that O’Hare discussed that for the emotion for this scene, he conjured his own angry feelings about gay marriage laws because he is gay and this is extremely important to him. Using feelings from such a very serious and pressing matter in his life is why I believe this particular scene is so passionate and remembered. I would love to see O’Hare perform in a Broadway show with as much fervor as that frightening, electric scene in True Blood.
See him in both roles below:
and
See the article here.
These two roles look dramatically different. It is interesting to see the same actor in such distinct roles. Your comments about how the actor seeks motivation for a scene within his own experience is a time-honored acting technique, generally referred to as “method acting.” Method actors do not learn particular techniques for acting out various emotions, but create and “become” the character, often using personal experience to inform the particular choices they make in acting a scene. they learn to react as if they actually ARE the character. this kind of naturalistic acting has become standard, but was very new when first introduced in the 1940’s. It is very effective, which is why it is still worth the discussion you found in this article.